Kelman Bottles LLC

By early next year, a “scaled down” glass bottle-making operation may return to the shuttered Glenshaw Glass Co. plant in Shaler.

But even sooner, a number of other businesses are likely to locate at the 500,000-square-foot factory-warehouse along Route 8.

That’s the plan of Pittsburgh businessman Bill Kelman, who headed a group that purchased the 25-acre Glenshaw Glass site for about $3.8 million after a bankruptcy court auction a year ago.

The company, formerly part of the glass company holdings of John Ghaznavi, closed in 2004, eliminating the jobs of about 350 employees.

“I think it will be safe to say that we probably would not reach the old number of people,” Kelman said. His plan is to use only one, and possible two of the factory’s four glass-making furnaces, if he is able to resume operations, employing about 100.

However, an undetermined number of additional jobs will be created by the other companies, locating there, he said. Dufftown Real Estate II, a real estate company created to own the site, is actively marketing excess space for new tenants.

A trucking company in the freight hauling business already has committed to take more than 130,000 square feet, he said, and a auto detailing shop is considering a location there.

And within the next month or so, Kelman plans to open a retail outlet that will sell the crystal bowls. Tureens and other hand-crafted items produced by L.E. Smith Glass Co., a Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, glass company he resurrected from closure in 2005.

“Given the traffic on Route 8 and the popularity of our products, especially around the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, we are expecting this will be a very nice store for us,” he said.

Kelman has been pursuing state funding to supplement private financing he is raising.

The Glenshaw factory suffered heavy damage in flooding that ravaged businesses in Shaler and other communities in September 2004.

Kelman said it is too soon to consider discussions with unions that represented hourly workers at the plant. “We are just starting to get our management team in place,” he said.

The bulk of those workers were represented by Glass Molders Pottery Plastics and Allied Workers Local 134, with a small number - about 14 - represented by the United Steelworkers.

“We are hoping he would approach us,” said Richard Baumcratz, staff representative for the Glass Molders international union. “We have the skilled workers to run that facility, and we would be more than willing to sit down and talk to him.”

Shaler Manager Timothy Rogers said the township is badly in need of new jobs, having lost more than 700 in the wake of the 2004 flooding.

In addition to Glenshaw Glass, companies that closed included Ranbar Technologies, Johnson Industrial Controls, Custom Industrial Controls, and Executive Warehouse.

“We’d love to get that plan up and running again,” Dennis Davin, director of the county Department of Economic Development, said of the Glenshaw plant.

The county has been helping Kelman’s group to investigate what environment permits it needs from the state, plus possible sources of financial aid, Davin said.

‘Glenshaw Glass site to reopen’